Because it's, like, SO IMPORTANT to have the right font.December 11, 2011 5:41 PMSubscribe

"Over the internet we yell at each other with ALL CAPS and emphasize with bold and italics, but where is sarcasm? Where is the nuance, the elegance? We say it is time for a change. It's time for a revolution. It's time for a new font style!"

Mild correction, this isn't left-leaning italic, this is left-leaning oblique. Thus it isn't so much a font as a style.posted by anateus at 5:48 PM on December 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Oh man. If you need a new font to get your point across, you should probably be spending more time working on your rhetoric than your typography.posted by auto-correct at 5:49 PM on December 11, 2011 [11 favorites]

Yeah, fantastic idea. It's not like the point of sarcasm as humor is precisely its resemblance to serious speech or anything.posted by RogerB at 5:50 PM on December 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Hasn't every awkwardly self aware adolescent trying to flirt on gchat engaged in a too meta conversation with the object of their affection about how hard it is to convey nuance online and man we really need a sarcasm font?

This would require me to know when I'm being sarcastic or genuine in any given sentence. That ship sailed a long time ago.posted by naju at 5:58 PM on December 11, 2011 [42 favorites]

what we need in this world is more sarcasm {/}posted by edgeways at 6:00 PM on December 11, 2011

I think my only issue with this is sometimes I want to be sarcastic and emphasize something. That would just look like normal text.posted by michaelh at 6:00 PM on December 11, 2011 [9 favorites]

If everyone used a sarcasm font then it would fail to be sarcasm so in order to be sarcastic you would have to use a new sarcasm sarcasm font and this would lead to infinite regress. I saw this happening in chat rooms 10 years ago with the number of quotation marks surrounding the acronym IDM. It got messy.posted by pmcp at 6:00 PM on December 11, 2011

Perhaps sarcasm is not the right word for it, but this font is definitely useful. There's textual iconicity in it's backwards-leaning stance. Bold is all, HEY LOOK AT ME. I'M BIG! Italics are tripping over themselves, as if the letters are racing to get to the point. But this guy, it's the perfect font for the following:

Slow down, Tubby, we ain't on the moon yet!
You sure you want my help?
It's not you, it's me.
No.posted by iamkimiam at 6:08 PM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

The whole point behind sarcasm is that only a certain audience should get it. Using this font would totally give the game away.posted by arcticseal at 6:09 PM on December 11, 2011

This is definitely either a double or close to one. I remember because one of my most-favorite comments dealt with the fact that the 'Sarcastic Font' evokes the Scooby-Do gang making a scooby-getaway. But now I can't really find it :(posted by muddgirl at 6:09 PM on December 11, 2011

The whole point behind sarcasm is that only a certain audience should get it.

Guys, guys, please...these folks are trying really hard to come up with a useful way to express sarcasm. They're trying to help us. I just think we should all be a bit more positive about it, that's all.posted by PlusDistance at 6:39 PM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Being facetious is more fun anyway.posted by NMcCoy at 7:04 PM on December 11, 2011

Oh, no one has \ever\ come up with a modification of a typeface that is a left-leaning italic. This has \never\ been used in Arabic or German typeface collections before.posted by clvrmnky at 7:07 PM on December 11, 2011

Bless your heart for sharing a site that was made in 2004, zardoz.posted by iconomy at 7:07 PM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

basically, just a font that seems to tilt left where a regular italic would tilt right.

but let's face it - people who tilt left have all the reason in the world to be sarcastic these daysposted by pyramid termite at 7:07 PM on December 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Honestly, I quite like this.posted by planet at 7:18 PM on December 11, 2011

Being facetious is more fun anyway.

Facetious is upside-down.posted by michaelh at 7:19 PM on December 11, 2011

So combining All-Caps with left-leaning italics would make you a sarcastic loudmouth?

I'm with anateus. There is absolutely no need for a new font or typeface to do this. All we need is a CSS font property called something like like "left-oblique" to tilt whatever font you're using to the left. <sarcasm>I am *shocked* that CSS doesn't already have this property. </sarcasm>posted by exphysicist345 at 8:22 PM on December 11, 2011

I thought Verdana was the go-to sarcasm font on Metafilter.posted by mazola at 8:27 PM on December 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

All we need is a CSS font property called something like like "left-oblique" to tilt whatever font you're using to the left.

Perfect! After all I don't want to have to stop using Comic Sans just because I'm being sarcastic.posted by mstokes650 at 9:21 PM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I really can't tell if they're serious about this.posted by contraption at 9:26 PM on December 11, 2011

I've been using tildes for the past few months and it seems to work pretty well. Backward tilting font seems to be way more difficult to read.posted by amwelles at 9:39 PM on December 11, 2011

This is an idea I can see myself getting behind and then pushing right over a cliff.posted by From Bklyn at 10:53 PM on December 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

This will be at least as successful as the satire font that English newspapers started using in 1730 after all those Irish babies were eaten.posted by Kid Charlemagne at 11:45 PM on December 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Some people have written write 'backhand', left leaning handwriting, for many, many years. I am surprised to find MetaFilter so stodgyposted by Cranberry at 11:58 PM on December 11, 2011

But wont someone think of the liberal media left leaning bias and how upstanding this will make them look.
And worse episode ever.posted by dprs75 at 1:54 AM on December 12, 2011

I like this a lot. No really. I like is so much. It's a really worthwhile post. There is nothing I would rather be reading.

If you have to use an exclamation mark or sarcasm mark to get the gist across, the writing is a failure!posted by choppyes at 3:00 AM on December 12, 2011

I'm with anateus. There is absolutely no need for a new font or typeface to do this. All we need is a CSS font property called something like like "left-oblique" to tilt whatever font you're using to the left. I am *shocked* that CSS doesn't already have this property.

This isn't how CSS works. When you apply font-style: italic, the font face in use needs to have an italic variant available for the display to work. CSS doesn't just lean any font through graphical alteration.posted by odinsdream at 6:14 AM on December 12, 2011

I still haven't been able to find out the name of that font Lessig uses for his powerpoints that looks like an angry teacher slashing his chalk on a chalkboard. In lieu of any clue I have decided to call it tragic sans.posted by bukvich at 7:37 AM on December 12, 2011

I stand corrected.

I can't think of a situation where anyone should use it, to be honest, but if you're going to have a right oblique, you might as well have a left one, imo.posted by empath at 7:42 AM on December 12, 2011

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